Photos of a female swimmer who suffered a wardrobe malfunction were displayed on an official race platform for more than an hour during a mainland open-water event, with organisers blaming the vetting lapse on the high volume of contestants.

Another athlete, surnamed Zhang, condemned the “inappropriate photography” at the 2026 Xing-Quan Dishui Lake Swim-Crossing Challenge on her social media account three days ago, but organisers had not issued an official statement or apology by Tuesday.

The race, an annual open-water endurance and triathlon event held at Dishui Lake in the Lin-gang Special Area of Shanghai, China, was hosted by the Shanghai Triathlon Association and operated by the Shanghai Triathlon Club.

In her post, Zhang recounted browsing the platform for her own photos when she discovered five consecutive images without any blurring or cropping of another contestant, whose upper body was fully exposed because her swimsuit had opened up by accident. The images were close-up shots of the female swimmer, rather than an accidental capture of a bystander.

The images were displayed on a public platform that had more than 10,000 active viewers at the time.

While such real-time photo streaming by third-party vendors is common in mainland races, these platforms usually require payment or restrict access to participants. However, the portal for this race was entirely public, requiring no login to view, and Zhang noticed that while most of the photos bore the photographers’ names, these five were marked “none”.